Friday, March 30, 2012

Searching for the Venice of the Nile

by 27 March 2012 by Jo Marchant, Luxor, Egypt



I'M KNEELING in a narrow strip of green fields that separates the Nile river from Egypt's western desert, watching Angus Graham and his team hammer what look like huge metal tent pegs into the ground. A few fields away, the ruined columns of the Ramesseum, mortuary temple of Pharaoh Ramesses II, rise above the wheat, overlooked by the amber cliffs that hide the royal tombs of the Valley of the Kings.
This area is dotted with some of the world's most impressive ancient remains, including the awesome Colossi of Memnon. But Graham, a field director for the Egypt Exploration Society in London, is interested in what's still hidden underground.
His tent pegs are actually probes that send weak electrical pulses into the ground to measure the earth's resistance. Called electrical resistivity tomography, the method can distinguish between bedrock (very resistant), waterlogged sediments (low resistance) and archaeological deposits (somewhere in between).
The hope is that by repeating the measurements throughout the Luxor area the team will see how Egypt's pharaohs engineered this landscape on a breathtaking scale, turning their capital, Thebes, into an ancient Venice.
Together with British, Egyptian and French colleagues, Graham is looking for ancient water channels. Texts and pictures from nearby temples and tombs suggest that sites on both sides of the Nile were connected by canals and navigable by boat. Descriptions of the Beautiful Festival of the Valley, for example, state that statues of gods were taken by barge from the temple complex at Karnak on the east bank to visit the dead kings at their mortuary temples on the west bank.
These descriptions have never been tested, and Graham wants hard evidence. If the waterways existed, did they operate all year round or just during flood season? Were they also used to transport supplies, including the immense stones used to build the temples?

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Facebook page to save ancient Egypt's El-Hibeh site

Following a year's worth of looting, well-known American archeologist Carol Redmount has launched a social media campaign to rescue the archaeological site of El-Hibeh next to the Egyptian city of Beni Suef

by Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 25 Mar 2012

Early this week, eminent University of California archaeologist Carol Redmount launched an appeal to rescue the El-Hibeh archaeological site in Beni Suef, almost 300km south of Cairo, through creating a Facebook group page.

El-Hibeh site is key to understanding ancient Egyptian history, as it is the least disturbed city mounds of the Third Intermediate Period (1070BC - 664BC) .

El-Hibeh is the modern name of the ancient Egyptian city of Tayu-djayet which means "their walls", referring to the massive enclosure walls built on the site by the high priests of Amun at Thebes to separate them from the kings of Egypt at Tanis. This shows the country's division during the period between the 20thdynasty and the 22nddynasty.

In the Graeco-Roman time, El-Hibeh was known as Ankyronpolis and during the Coptic era it was called Teudjo. The city is estimated to have been built in 1070 BC by the high priest of Amun and lasted for over 1,700 years. It includes remains from ancient Egyptian, Ptolemaic, Roman, Coptic and early Islamic eras.

On the Facebook group page, Redmount posted the story behind the creation of the account. She wrote that after the January 25 Revolution she contacted people in Egypt in order to ensure that El-Hibeh was not subjected to looting like other archaeological sites in Egypt. The lack of security in the aftermath of the revolution had led robbers to raid the ancient necropolis and museums.
Redmount continued that photos sent to her in May, June and December 2011 and January 2012 confirmed that the site had in fact been looted.

She also heard that there were raids going on at night by an unknown person from El-Ogra, the village north of the site, and that no one could catch the person.
“That is where things stood when I came to Egypt in February,” Redmount wrote. When she arrived to Egypt to resume excavation works, which had stopped in 2009, she registered with the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA).

“The day before we were supposed to start work I received a phone call telling me that local Beni Suef security had yanked our permission to work. The upshot was that a local "gangster" from El Ogra… had formed a sort of mafia focused on looting the site,” Redmount wrote. His "gang" has continued to steal from the site on a “massive scale.”

On her way back to Cairo through the eastern desert highway, Redmount saw about ten men openly looting the mound and desert behind. She succeeded in photographing them.
The American archeologist also pointed out that one of the team’s drivers took the same road last Friday and reported that again numerous men were busy with wholesale looting of the site in broad daylight.

“This is an on-going crisis. They are destroying the site,” Redmount asserted. She went on to explain that the MSA officials have tried everything they could to get the looting to stop but nothing appears to have had an effect.

“This is something police and security seem to be ignoring, turning a blind eye to or worse. We started the Save Hibeh Facebook page because we are at our wits end as to what else to do,” Redmount concluded.

“Hibeh is vitally important to understanding the character of ancient Egypt in the Third Intermediate Period, a very confusing and confused historical era for which only limited archaeological resources exist. Archaeology is controlled destruction, but looting is obliteration. It destroys an irreplaceable, nonrenewable cultural resource that belongs to humanity,” asserted Redmount.

Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Reign of Pharaoh Thutmose II suggests crisis

Harvard University educated archaeologist and president of the Paleontological Research Corporation, Dr. Joel Klenck, states an array of archaeological discoveries evidence a crisis during the reign of the Egyptian Pharaoh Thutmose II (ca. 1,492-1,479 B.C.) in the Eighteenth Dynasty.
An inscription by the succeeding Pharaoh Hatshepsut (ca. 1,479-1,457 B.C.) in her Underground Temple at Speos Artemidos states that Egypt was “ruined” and “had gone to pieces” before the beginning of her reign. Hatshepsut’s inscription also states that a population of “vagabonds” emerged from former Asiatic populations that once controlled northern Egypt and caused this ruination. Hatshepsut notes these vagabonds were responsible for “overthrowing that which had been made”.

Klenck comments, “The reign of Thutmose II ended between 79 and 86 years after Seqenenre Tao II (ca. 1,560-1,555 B.C.) began to reconquer northern Egypt from foreign Hyksos populations, who controlled Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1,650-1,550 B.C.). Egyptian texts are clear that the son of Tao II, Ahmose I, conquered the Hyksos and captured their capital at Avaris around 1,550 B.C. Yet, this inscription by Hatshepsut notes another population remained in Egypt from ‘the midst’ of the ‘Asiatics’ and ruined Egypt ‘down to my majesty’ or before the beginning of her reign.”

Further, there is evidence that disease affected the royal court before the reign of Hatshepsut. The mummy of Thutmose II is the only corpse of a pharaoh during the Eighteenth Dynasty covered with cysts from an unknown malady. These lesions coat the back, waist, arms and legs of Thutmose II and exhibit a mixture of papules, scabs and scars up to several centimeters in length. These cysts also cover the corpse of the wet-nurse Sitre-In, who was probably unrelated to the royal lineage. In addition, Hatshepsut and her successor, Thutmose III (ca. 1,457-1,425 B.C.), bear traces of the disease suggesting their skin healed after a period of time. Recent DNA evidence suggests that Thutmose III might not be related to Thutmose II. That Sitre-In and Thutmose III show evidence of this disease suggests the disease was not hereditary but widely affected Thutmose II and his court.

Tuesday, March 20, 2012

Rare wood statue of woman pharaoh found in University of Toronto dig in Egypt

by Stephanie Findlay

Consider her the Queen Elizabeth of ancient Egypt, one of the great pharaohs of her age.
Unlike the female pharaohs before and after her, Hatshepsut, who ruled in the 15th century B.C., was a powerful leader, a prolific builder and a dedicated patron of the arts who maintained her empire’s sphere of influence for two decades at the height of that civilization.

For reasons that can only be guessed at, her stepson, Thutmose III, tried to obscure her place in Egypt’s history after she died. He wasn’t entirely successful.

Last summer, in a dig in Egypt, a University of Toronto archaeologist discovered a wooden statue with an hourglass figure and gentle chin that was likely crafted in Hatshepsut’s image.
“There is more delicate modelling in the jaw,” noted Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, associate professor of Egyptian archaeology, who recently presented her findings.

Pouls Wegner said Hatshepsut (pronounced hat-shep-SOOT) is often depicted in men’s clothes with a fake beard in ancient Egyptian iconography. “In her stone statuing, she’s shown to be male but with nods to her (female) physique,” she said. “The waist is thinner in this example.”

The find is extraordinary. There are fewer than 15 such wooden statues of pharaohs in the world; most fell victim to termites centuries ago. Many of the surviving examples were found in King Tut’s tomb, nearly a century ago. If this statue is of Hatshepsut, it will be the first depicting a female pharaoh.

Monday, March 19, 2012

Six Old Kingdom tombs to be opened at Giza Plateau

The tomb of King Khufu’s granddaughter, along with those of five more Old Kingdom noblemen, is to be opened to the public soon

by Nevine El-Aref , Sunday 18 Mar 2012

At the Western Cemetery on the Giza Plateau are located six Old Kingdom tombs of nobles and top officials of the Fourth Dynasty, waiting for their official opening after restoration.

Although these tombs may be sparse in decoration, they are rich in architectural features. Discovered early in the last century, the tombs have impressive facades, more like temples, and large chambers with rock-hewn pillars.

The first one belongs to Princess Mersankh, the granddaughter of King Khufu. This tomb was originally built for her mother, Queen Hetepheres II, but on Mersankh's sudden death the tomb was donated to her. The tomb was discovered in 1927 by archaeologist George Reisner where a black granite sarcophagus was found along with a set of Canopic jars, and a limestone statue depicting Queen Hetepheres II embracing her daughter. The sarcophagus is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo while the statue is in the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston.

The second tomb belongs to Seshem-Nefer, the overseer of the two seats of the House of Life and keeper of the king's secrets. “It is one of the largest tombs on the Giza Plateau,” Ali El-Asfar, director general of archaeology on the plateau, told Ahram Online, adding that it contains funerary, hunting and offering scenes, as well as a depiction of the Seshem-Nefer's daily life.

The third tomb belongs to Senefru-Kha-Ef, the king's treasurer and priest of the god Apis. El-Asfar said that the tomb’s inner walls also reveal typical scenes of the dead official and his children.
The fourth tomb was constructed for Nefer, the overseer of the soul priests. Its walls are decorated with scenes showing the Nefer's daily life with his family and dog.

The fifth tomb belongs to Yassen, the overseer of the king’s farms. The sixth tomb was for Ka-Em-Ankh, overseer of the royal treasury.

According to Mohamed Ibrahim, minister of state for antiquities, the walls of the tombs have been cleaned and reinforced, graffiti left by visitors removed and inscriptions and paintings conserved. The walls are now protected by wood, and lighting and ventilation systems have been installed. A path linking the tombs to the Great Pyramid of Khufu was established in order to facilitate visits.
These tombs were previously opened 25 years ago, said Ibrahim, adding that they were closed for restoration according to the rotation system introduced at the Giza Plateau in the 1990s, under which some of the noblemen’s tombs will be closed for restoration each year.

“Regretfully they were never opened again,” El-Asfar said.

As they open now, others will close for restoration and preservation.

Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/News/37069.aspx

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Polish researcher changes the dating of the famous Egyptian necropolis

Royal cemetery in Meidum developed continuously at least until the late New Kingdom period, the end of the second millennium BC, determined Dr. Teodozja Rzeuska, archaeologist at the Institute of Mediterranean and Oriental Culture PAS.

Until now, Egyptologists believed that the dead had been buried there only in times of the builders of the pyramids, in the third millennium BC.

Archaeological site Meidum represents the southern border of the most famous necropolis of the ancient world - the Memphite necropolis, which includes the largest pyramids built for the pharaohs Khufu and Khafre.

"Scientists associate Meidum with a finely crafted mastaba (tomb of the mighty - editor. PAP) relief depicting geese, with one of the oldest mummies found in Nefer mastaba, and with sculptures depicting the family of Pharaoh Snefru (IV Dynasty, 27th century BC). The necropolis is considered one of the most recognisable in Egypt, but paradoxically it is also one of the least known and most mysterious "- said Dr. Teodozja Rzeuska.

One of the first scientists to conduct regular excavations there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century was British archaeologist W.F.M. Petrie, pioneer and father of Egyptian archaeology. At the end of the 1920s, American researcher Alan Rowe also carried out short excavation work in Meidum. The last archaeologist to conduct excavations there was Aly El-Khuli. 40 years have passed since that time.

Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Statue, Chapels and Animal Mummies Found in Egypt

ScienceDaily (Mar. 12, 2012) — A wooden statue of a king, a private offering chapel, a monumental building and remains of over 80 animal mummies found by a University of Toronto-led team in Abydos, Egypt reveal intriguing information about ritual activity associated with the great gods.

Professor Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner of the Department of Near and Middle Eastern Civilizations presented her team's findings at a recent meeting of the Society for the Study of Egyptian Antiquities.
The wooden statue is one of very few existing royal wooden statues, and may represent the female king Hatshepsut. She was often portrayed as male in stone because the Egyptian pharaoh was understood to be son of the god Amon-Re (she was also known to dress as a man for the role). But this statue has a smaller waist and delicate jawline, acknowledging these aspects of her feminine physique. It is believed to be from a ceremonial procession in which wooden statues of the royal ancestors (spirits of the kings) and gods were carried in boat-shaped shrines by priests from the temple of Osiris to his tomb. The procession was part of a festival celebrating the afterlife of the god Osiris.

Egyptians from all levels of society built chapels and monuments along the processional route as a way of ensuring their eternal participation in the festival and their identification with Osiris. Building too close to the route, however, was prohibited by the state and infringement carried the threat of the death penalty. The offering chapel they uncovered is believed to be that of an elite person, dates from about 1990 -- 1650 BC and shows where the boundary to the route was.

"The offering chapel proves that people -- probably elites -- were able to build monuments right next to the processional route in the Middle Kingdom, and that at least one such chapel was allowed to stand in this increasingly densely built-up area and continued to receive offerings even 800 years after its initial construction," says Pouls Wegner.

A much larger structure discovered is likely either a temple or royal chapel from the Ramesside Period. Long after its initial construction, the structure was re-used as a repository for animal mummies. In this context, the researchers found a mass of animal bones and linen fragments. Two cats, three sheep or goats, and at least 83 dogs, ranging in age from puppies to adults, were discovered. Several of the animals had recovered from injuries, suggesting that they had been cared for before they were sacrificed, probably for the jackal god Wepwawet, who was an important deity in the Osiris festival as the leader of the procession and protector of the cemetery.

The dig was conducted in Egypt in June and July 2011. It was supported by a research grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation of Anthropological Research with photo and survey equipment provided by U of T's Archaeology Centre. Wegner's team included Ayman Damarany, Barakat 'Eid Ahmed and Mahmoud Mohamed of the Supreme Council of Antiquities of Egypt, archaeological illustrator Tamara Bower and U of T graduate students Meredith Brand, Amber Hutchinson, Christina Geisen and Janet Khuu.

Source: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120312140250.htm

Monday, March 12, 2012

Nine limestone reliefs are back home from Spain

The stolen artefacts were missing for over a decade until they turned up in Barcelona

by Nevine El-Aref , Monday 12 Mar 2012

After a thirteen year absence, nine ancient Egyptian limestone reliefs were returned to their original place in the Saqqara necropolis.

The story of the objects goes back to 1999, when the nine limestone reliefs were reported missing from their original location on the walls of the sixth dynasty tomb of a nobleman called Imep-Hor, located in Kom Al-Khamsin area in Saqqara, 15 miles south of the Giza plateau.

The reliefs are engraved with hieroglyphic texts showing different names of the tomb’s owner and religious chapters from the Book of the Dead.

Ahmed Mostafa, former head of the return antiquities department as the Ministry of State for Antiquities (MSA), told Ahram Online that one of these reliefs was found three years ago on the list of a well known auction house in Spain. The Ministry, which was then called the Supreme Council of Antiquities, asked the Spanish government to stop the auction as the relief was an Egyptian possession that has been stolen and illegally smuggled out of the country.

A year later, the eight other reliefs were taken from the possession of an antiquities dealer in Barcelona. An Egyptian archaeological committee travelled to Spain to inspect the items and showed all the required documents to prove Egyptian ownership of the artefacts.

Legal procedures and diplomatic negotiations took place between both the Spanish and Egyptian governments over the last three years, and yesterday Egypt’s embassy in Spain received a letter from the Spanish government that the latter agreed to hand over the requested items to Egypt.

In a statement, Egypt’s Ambassador to Spain, Ayman Zaineddin, praised the cooperation shown by the Spanish during the discussions and Madrid's desire to follow the proper legal process to protect Egyptian rights. He said that “Spain's positive response embodies the friendly relations between the two countries.”
Source: http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/36583/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Nine-limestone-reliefs-are-back-home-from-Spain.aspx

Thursday, March 8, 2012

Hypatia of Alexandria

To conclude this "Alexandria" week and the International Women's Day read the following article about Hypatia of Alexandria:

"Life is an unfoldment, and the further we travel, the more truth we comprehend. To understand the things that are at our door is the best preparation for understanding those that lie beyond."

Hypatia


In the four hundred and fifteenth year of the Common Era, in the city of Alexandria, a tragedy occurred that, according to those who write history, was so insignificant it has barely rated a mention in even the most extensive of historical records. However, this event was not only tragic for the individuals involved, but has had far-reaching consequences for anyone who has ever valued the importance of intellectual freedom and scientific enquiry.

Hypatia of Alexandria, a mathematician, was dragged from her carriage and savagely murdered by a Christian mob in 415CE. She is perhaps better remembered for how she died rather than the way in which she lived. However, Hypatia lived an extraordinary life as the pre-eminent mathematician, philosopher, astronomer and astrologer of her time.

It is not surprising that we have very little knowledge of Hypatia's life. Even in the early fifth century, Christian historians had achieved predominance and it is unlikely that they would have wanted to consign knowledge of this tragedy to history. She was a strong supporter of free enquiry and her murder is believed by many to symbolise the end of an era of intellectual freedom. Margaret Wertheim, in her excellent book 'Pythagoras' Trousers' states, "The great era of Greek mathematical science, which began with the birth of a man, finished with the death of a woman."

Hypatia was born at a time when attitudes to women were deeply influenced by the misogyny of Aristotelian philosophy. Although Plato, and Pythagoras before him, had believed in the intellectual equality of women and both philosophers had encouraged full education of women, Aristotle felt that they did not have the intellectual capabilities of their male counterparts. It was due to the good fortune of having an enlightened father that Hypatia was able to rise above this misogyny and become one of the most educated and influential people of her time.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Alexandria and Egypt

Alexandria, the brilliant Greek city state known as "The Bride of the Mediterranean", wore its distinctly Egyptian flavour with pride, and it was more pharaonic than previously supposed. Salvaged sphinxes, statues, papyrus columns and blocks of stone inscribed with the names of pharaohs attest to this. The sea bed in the Great (Eastern) harbour is carpeted with such works -- some usurped from earlier structures and transported to adorn the Ptolemaic city.

Ptolemy I, the general who inherited Egypt, took immediate steps to accommodate the local population. On the spacious summit of a high rock in Alexandria (where the so-called Pompey's Pillar stands today) he constructed the Serapeum, a temple to house the god Osir-Apis (Serapis in Greek), a hybrid god is attributed to two sources: an Egyptian familiar with local tradition, and a priestly family acquainted with Greek rituals.

Rhakotis (Re-kadit), the site chosen by Alexander for his new capital, was neither a sparsely populated settlement of nomads and their cattle as often described, nor "the wretched fishing village" described by Idris Bell in his Egypt from Alexander the Great to the Arab Conquest. Its strategic suitability as a harbour was recognised as far back as Egypt's 18th Dynasty (c. 1567 BC) when an Egyptian community was settled there. It grew over a period of two centuries, and by the reign of Ramesses II had a large enough population for him to build a temple in honour of Osiris.

During the Saite Period in the sixth century BC, an Egyptian garrison was stationed at Rhakotis. The local population further expanded and the temple was enlarged. By the reign of Nektanebo II, the last Egyptian pharaoh before the Greek conquest, it was so important a community that plans were made (which did not materialise) to develop a royal necropolis for pharaonic burials.

When Dinocrates, an experienced Greek city planner from Rhodes, designed Alexandria on the rectangular blueprint of Hellenic cities, Rhakotis was automatically absorbed within the city limits. Today's districts of Mina Al-Bassal, Kom Al-Shufaga and Kermous are built on its ruins.

Underwater archaeology is a relatively new field of specialisation and one that is reaping remarkable rewards. Using modern equipment to map objects on the sea bed, a joint European-Egyptian mission under the directorship of Jean-Yves Empereur (renowned scholar and director of research at the National Centre for Scientific Research, and of the Centre for Alexandrine Studies), was launched in 1997 to save the submerged remains of the port and palace area of Alexandria. Among the mass of stone objects that litter the sea bed is a part of a monolith, believed to be of Ptolemy I, that might be one of a pair of statues that stood at the entrance to the harbour -- which confirms that the city was more integrated with pharaonic tradition than previously supposed.

Source: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2012/1087/he2.htm

Monday, March 5, 2012

Alexander and his Macedonian heirs

He stayed only a few years in Egypt yet Alexander left a lasting legacy. Jill Kamil looks into recent research

Macedonian conquest of Egypt, its consequences and its reflection in literature and art were the subject of an international workshop at the University of Warsaw towards the end of 2011. Its aim was to explore the means by which Alexander's successors, the Ptolemies -- who successfully ruled Egypt for three centuries and made it once more a brilliant kingdom -- systematically elevated and propagated Alexander's memory by identifying themselves with the deceased hero and reusing his visual and literary heritage.

The colourful personality of Alexander the Great has been memorialised in fiction, films and biographies. His death and multiple burials have long held fascination. Indeed, the search for his tomb continues. Seeking clues from material remains, today's scholars continue to unravel the compelling mysteries that surround his brief stay in Egypt.

Alexander, son of Philip II of Macedonia, had already made himself master of the disunited Greek world when, after defeating the Persians in the Levant, he marched on Egypt. The country was then under Persian rule and the Egyptians in a state of revolt against their overlords. It was not without enthusiasm, therefore, that they joined Alexander's march towards their capital Memphis where the Persian garrison was quickly discharged

The local population forthwith called down blessing on Alexander as their liberator, and their welcome was genuine. Egyptians and Greeks not only shared a common enemy but a common culture. From the sixth century BC Greek traders and sailors had established colonies in Egypt, in the Delta, the Fayoum, Middle and Upper Egypt. Many Greeks had married Egyptians and had chosen either Egyptian or Greek names for their children. They shared the same gods (calling them either by their Egyptian or Greek names), and honoured the living pharaoh who was regarded as a god. What the Egyptians may have failed to realise, however, was that Alexander planned to join Egypt to his already widely extended empire, and that his arrival was to prove the beginning of the end of its identity as an independent nation.

Sunday, March 4, 2012

Unknown Pharaoh discoverd at Karnak Temple

During his visit yesterday to Karnak temple, Dr. Mohamed Ibrahim(Minister state of Antiquities) announced the discovery of a new pharaoh’s name from the 17th dynasty that was not known to Egyptologists which helps in revealing the chronological order of the Kings of this dynasty.
It was the IFAO mission headed by Christophe Thiers that found a limestone door at the north of Amon’s temple dated back to 17th dynasty with hieroglyphics inscriptions and a royal cartouche bears the name of a King that didn’t appear before in ancient Egyptian history and the name is “Sen Nakht N’ Ra”

The Minister confirmed that this discovery is the first of this Pharaoh’s work as the text mentioned that he established buildings for God Amon in Karnak with the limestone he quarried from Tora,near Cairo and demanded the work to continue in the area in order to reveal more architecture elements that had been established by this King.
This discovery will add a new King to the 17th dynasty which witnesses the Hyksos occupation.

Saturday, March 3, 2012

Raising Amenhotep III's colossus

Photo courtesy of AhramOnline

Colossus of King Amenhotep III to be erected on Saturday at its funerary temple on Luxor’s west bank

by Nevine El-Aref , Saturday 3 Mar 2012

A quartzite colossus of 18th Dynasty King Amenhotep III is to be raised on Luxor's west bank on Saturday.

The colossus was unearthed in 2004 by an Egyptian-European archaeological mission led by Horig Sourouzian during routine excavation work. It was 100 meters behind the gigantic colossi of Memnon which represent the same king at the main entrance of its temple. The colossus was half buried under Nile alluvia in seven pieces.

In 2011 the restoration work was completed and Antiquities Minister Mohamed Ibrahim is to witness the raising of the colossi at its original location.

Sourouzian said it is the first time that such a monumental sculpture will raised by combining Pharaonic methods and modern air-cushion techniques. She explained that the statue was one of a pair that once stood at the temple’s northern gate but a massive earthquake in 1200 BC destroyed the whole temple.

Ibrahim described the colossus as a masterpiece of ancient Egyptian royal sculpture. It is 13 metres tall and depicts King Amenhotep III seated on a decorated throne and accompanied by a very well preserved statue of his wife Queen Tiye.